


Ten Thousand Spoons

by badboy_fangirl



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 22:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How asking Alaric Saltzman for help ends up saving Damon Salvatore's life. (Season one post-episode fic.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Thousand Spoons

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my favorite scenes, expanded. I love Alaric, and I love watching him watching them, hence the inspiration for this fic.

Damon's hands grip her face, but not roughly. There's a gentleness there that makes her think-- _hope_ \--that he wants to save Stefan because deep down inside, he cares for his brother. She feels powerless when, turning away from her, he mutters again, "I don't know how to get him out of there."

The rain drips its icy fingers down her neck, the umbrella over her head unable to keep out the slanting drops. As she shivers, suddenly, a possible solution springs to her mind. "Mr. Saltzman!" she cries aloud. Stefan had told her enough about him for her to know he might be able to help.

Damon looks back at her, shakes his head negatively, thinking for a moment. "You're right," he finally says.

They get in the car and race back to town.

~*~

Alaric Saltzman had needed about three minutes in his presence, time when he wasn’t pretending to be just another normal guy involved in a small-town fundraiser, to understand Damon Salvatore. Psychotic, malicious, sociopathic. These are all terms that describe the vampire succinctly.

And as a general rule, Ric doesn’t waste time trying to understand people, even supernatural beings, who did unforgivable things like, you know, kill him.

He had literally been planning his next attempt on Damon’s existence when said victim had showed up at the school with Elena Gilbert in tow. It's close to five o’clock, and Ric was almost ready to head home to his lonely apartment. He found that he liked hanging around Mystic Falls High after hours far more than he did the small one room apartment he’d rented downtown. (He also liked spending time with Jenna Sommers, but he'd been avoiding her for a week or so now. He found he couldn't really be around her and plan a murder. Her presence was too calming.)

When Jenna's niece picks up one of Ric’s vervain-filled darts, handling it like she’s going to actually use it, he sees something different in Damon. It’s enough to capture his interest, the details jumping out at him as he observes their bickering.

The way Damon ignores Elena’s insistence that she is going into the house where Stefan is being held is almost… _brotherly_. He quickly covers that by dismissing Ric’s importance, though they’ve come asking specifically for his help. (“Teacher by day, vampire hunter by night,” Damon had teased in a mock announcer’s voice.)

Elena’s sarcastic “Damon, now is not the time to be the _Lone Ranger_ ,” reminds Ric that she’s seventeen going on forty, since she seems to think she can be equal with a vampire in this sort of situation. (Oddly, her ability to give it right back to Damon is entertaining, and somewhat gratifying, to Ric’s pride.)

The familiarity between them secures his attention even more, and he watches them closely as the tension escalates.

“Fine, Elena,” Damon concedes patronizingly. “You can drive the getaway car, hmmm?” He smirks one last time and says firmly, “You’re NOT going in the house.”

“You can’t stop me!” she cries, appearing much more childish than Ric’s seen before from her. “It’s Stefan we’re talking about here. You don’t understand.”

“Oh, I understand,” Damon replies in a sing-songy voice, closing his eyes briefly in mock earnestness. “He’s the reason you live; his love lifts you up where you belong. I get it.”

“Can you just not joke around, for like two seconds?” Elena demands angrily.

Damon’s voice changes instantly. “I can’t protect you, Elena.” His impassioned speech covers everything in a matter of seconds--basically a summation of them all ending up dead if she does anything stupid--and Ric has a new perspective. Damon cares about Elena and his brother deeply, despite all the things Ric’s seen to the contrary. He may hide it beneath layers (and layers!) of macabre humor, but the fact that he’s taking this mission so seriously is enough for Ric to know that they are going into war, and Damon understands more about what they’re facing than he does.

He’s not sure why it surprises him so much, but there is something in that moment that makes Ric…not respect Damon…no, not that. But he can see, while deeply buried beneath years of doing whatever the hell he wanted at no consequence, that there still exists the human man he once was.

“I know,” Damon says to Elena, and he touches her arm. “I get it,” he states, his voice completely serious. “I understand.”

And so does Ric. Damon Salvatore loves just as everyone else does. He has weaknesses, which he is very much aware of, but isn't willing to exploit in a dangerous situation.

Ric says, "Look, if we're gonna go, let's go," and they head out. Damon tosses Elena the keys as they hit the parking lot, and smirks at Ric when Ric says, "You were serious."

"We've already been out there once, she knows the way," Damon says, pulling the seat forward and gesturing for Ric to climb in the back of his blue muscle car.

Ric rolls his eyes, wanting to point out that he's got about five inches on Damon, and the last thing he should have to do is ride in the back seat, but he knows it's a petty item to bring up, so he says nothing.

It takes about twenty minutes to drive there, and they're all silent the whole way. Ric has a great view from his vantage point, so he notices how every few minutes Damon's head turns slightly and he watches Elena from the corner of his eye. It's only when he looks out the passenger side window that Elena's gaze turns to him. Granted she can't take her eyes off the road for long because it's still raining heavily and he has a feeling the weight of the old car intimidates her a bit, though she would never have not driven since Damon offered the opportunity.

Ric wonders what's going on in Damon's head just now, what his strategy is once they're inside the house, other than to kill as many vamps as quickly as possible, and locate Stefan. Ric knows how easy it would be to kill Damon in the mix--if he's killing six nameless vampires, there's no reason he can't kill the one who took his wife from him.

"Pull over here," Damon says pointing towards the right side of the road. She does as he instructs, then puts the car in park and turns to look at him. "After we're in the house, turn the car around so we're facing the direction we want to go. Keep the car off, and the doors locked. Do not, _do not_ get out for any reason. If one of us isn't back within ten minutes, drive away."

She drops his gaze and his hand snakes out to grip her chin, dragging her eyes back to his. "Promise me," he orders. "If one of us doesn't come back in ten minutes--if you do not see one of us coming-- _you will drive away_. You will go and find Sheriff Forbes, and you will tell her that you think I went to kill a bunch of Vampires."

At first, Ric thinks he's compelling her, but it becomes obvious by the stress he puts on each word, that he's pleading with her, in his own way.

"I promise," she says, and there are tears in her voice.

Damon stares at her a moment longer, the hardness in his face most definitely emotionally driven, and Ric knows, he won't kill the guy, even if the opportunity presents itself.

Stefan's probably already dead, and he can't do that to Elena--losing both of them on the same day wouldn't be something she'd cope well with, not with everything that's happened to her in the last several months.

He almost scoffs aloud at his own reasoning. He won't kill him, not because of Jenna or Elena, or even the memory of Isobel. Alaric Saltzman won't kill Damon Salvatore because he's real to him now. He's not just the nameless creature who somehow stole the thing that mattered most to Ric. Now he's someone's brother, and someone's protector, and though a man completely devoid of any typical empathetic qualities, there are people who care for him.

Killing Damon would make Ric on par with him, and he doesn't ever want to get to that place.

All the same, as they get out of the car into the rain, he's the guy who has Ric's back, and Ric hates him, but he trusts him too.

~*~

Elena's promise to Damon burns her tongue. As she sits in the car, eyes fastened to the path they took away from it, she knows she can't break it, even though that's all she can think about. Damon must believe Sheriff Forbes could help in some way, if it came to that. She feels the time tick by on her watch, and she glances up through the windshield after checking it at the nine-minute mark. In the distance she can see Mr. Saltzman coming, the color of his jacket distinct against the gray sky.

Damon is inside the house now, and the promise no longer matters.

She gets out of the car and goes the long way around the copse of trees. She avoids the teacher, and runs straight for the house.


End file.
